There are two common functions across a set of data of a spreadsheet: applying formulas and automatically rendering plots. These actions are typical of numeric-based spreadsheets. Applying a formula across a series of rows or columns (or arbitrary cells) results with a numeric value being placed in another cell. This other cell is typically at the end of the row or column. Selecting an adjacent set of cells and automatically rendering a plot of these values against the x-axis is another common task. The resulting plot will either appear within a separate pane/window over the data cells with which you are working. This interaction results in the obscuring of the original data.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,907 issued Mar. 3, 1992 to Hwong et al. for GRAPHIC FILE DIRECTORY AND SPREADSHEET discloses a combined visual directory and spreadsheet for graphic files. Graphic files can be selectively associated with cells of a matrix. A selectable portion of the matrix containing miniaturized versions of the graphic files associated with the cells of that portion is displayed on an editing monitor. Graphic functions of various kinds can be assigned to displayed cells by the operator to produce modifications, animation, or display of graphics associated with selected cells.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,363 issued Oct. 19, 1993 to Seyler for GRAPH-BASED PROGRAMMING SYSTEM AND ASSOCIATED METHOD discloses a graphical programming system with a spreadsheet base for enabling users to create graphical program for displaying and manipulating data.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,895 issued May 16, 1995 to Anderson et al. for SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR IMPROVED SPREADSHEET INTERFACE WITH USER-FAMILIAR OBJECTS and U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,805 issued Mar. 26, 1996 to Anderson et al. for SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR IMPROVED SPREADSHEET INTERFACE WITH USER-FAMILIAR OBJECTS disclose electronic spreadsheet systems which include a notebook interface having a plurality of notebook pages, and methods for rapidly accessing and processing information on different pages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,708 issued Oct. 24, 1995 to Kahn for SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATED GRAPHING OF SPREADSHEET INFORMATION and U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,678 issued Dec. 3, 1996 to Kahn for SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATED GRAPHING OF SPREADSHEET INFORMATION disclose electronic spreadsheet systems which include intelligent graphing modules for automatically selecting a graph type based on a user's own data.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,742 issued Mar. 9, 1999 to Rao et al. for SPREADSHEET IMAGE SHOWING DATA ITEMS AS INDIRECT GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIONS discloses an improvement to a spreadsheet application program and displays a first spreadsheet image showing a plurality of cell regions each of which shows a direct, symbolic representation of a source data value of a source data item in an n-dimensional information data array with which the cell is respectively paired. A second spreadsheet image is displayed which shows in each cell, a graphical display object representation of the respectively paired source data value in place of its direct representation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,256,649 B1 issued Mackinlay et al. issued Jul. 3, 2001 for ANIMATED SPREADSHEET FOR DYNAMIC DISPLAY OF CONSTRAINT GRAPHS displays an augmented spreadsheet presentation provides for selecting a region of user focus in a primary body of data displayed as an array of cells, with two or more displayed cells of the array of cells being logically linked by a constraint graph.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,832 B2 issued Dec. 17, 2002 to Chi et al. for VISUALIZATION SPREADSHEET discloses a system for analyzing data organized into data sets and for transforming the data sets into a visual representation of the data sets.
U.S. patent application Publication published Jul. 11, 2002 by Kjaer et al. for MULTIDIMENSIONAL ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEET SYSTEM AND METHOD discloses a multidimensional electronic spreadsheet system wherein different spreadsheet cells may be addressed by a different number of variables, thereby minimizing memory and processing time requirements of the electronic spreadsheet system.
Torres, for SPREADSHEET DATA VISUALIZATION, Research Disclosure n334 02-92 page 4, and (Feb. 1992) discloses a technique to enhance processing of spreadsheet or tabular data by creating a visual spreadsheet and includes automatic generation of a visual spreadsheet by converting numeric data to visual form as in a 3-D histogram.